It’s back! After almost a year of waiting, Oxford’s much loved and much missed Sport’s Bar-come-Nightclub has made its triumphant return.

That’s right baby – Wahoo is back; and boy have we missed it. The Park-End Street location has been refurbished and remodeled into the uber-swish ‘Oxford Foundry’, and VERSA have sent our top clubbers to check out the remodel.

The first thing you might notice about the revamp is the change in opening times. Unlike the conventional 9pm-3am timings that most Oxford club venues conform to, Ox-Fo (as it will surely be known) has gone for more niche day-time operating hours. Reminiscent of the Berlin morning rave scene, the Foundry opens its doors to only the most hardcore clubbers for a 9am start.

The layout is a little unorthodox it must be said. Gone are the open dance floors and seedy corner tables and instead the Foundry offers up a burlesque style set-up of round tables and chairs: a bit like a ‘20s speak-easy. Fellow clubbers are found huddled round these tables, spooling attentively over their laptops. The natural conclusion must be that the club attracts a huge roster of amateur DJs but it seems that the competition was be especially fierce as no music was yet playing when we arrived.

Next it was time for some drinks. Innovative as ever, the Foundry has no obvious bar area. Instead patrons are directed towards a self-service “coffee-machine’”– the club is clearly hitting the faux-prohibition vibes very hard indeed. Somewhat disappointing was the lack of traditional libations such as VK or the mighty Jaeger-bomb; but then again Oxford is saturated with such normie fodder so the change was appreciated.

The King is dead. Long Live the King

After about half an hour inside we felt it was time to check out what sort of ravers the gaff was attracting. This was the Foundry’s only downfall. Despite VERSA’s best efforts, we received embittered sighs wherever we turned. Snaps of “can you please keep it down” and “this isn’t a club you prick” were about all our pages allow us to print. Furthermore, the staff were incredibly unaccommodating to our naiveté, clearly unimpressed at our attempts to order a vodka soda lime or request they play ‘Mr. Brightside’. How embarrassing.

All in all we were left confused but delighted by this welcome addition to the desperately impoverished Oxford club-scene. The insightful use of daylight removes any chance of a poorly judged get-with, whilst the caffeinated cocktails had us moving our feet for hours. VERSA would highly recommend Seminar Room A as a cool place to kick back without all the crowds and pretence of Bridge VIP.

Tickets for Hermina Ibarra’s massive set: ‘The Clarendon Lectures on Management Studies’ go on sale this week. We hope to see you there!